I think I will write up a series of across the board impressions and experiences letter... I am editing photos... I filled two cards and Mary Beth often took photos and I didn't and vice versa... plus there were 10 other photographers! they are going to all contribute to a dvd which we will receive down the line. The gallery to date is available here: http://cathryn.myjalbum.net/Ruths%20India%20Photos/index.html

The best part were the people experiences MB and I had every time we split from the group which would be touring some ruin or shopping...I like the odd ruin but not a day full every day, herded like cattle from point a to point b. I like shopping but I was way out of my league. Had I known they were going rug shopping one day I would have had my sizes as I need rugs and want the embroidered ones they were buying, free shipping. Oh well, next trip! The worst was the pollution...we here in NA have contributed greatly....our huge corporations go there to escape the rules here and set up shop there with no rules. Then there is the everyday trash that 30 years ago was biodegradable and gave the piggies and cows something to munch and is now plastic, unsightly and of course inedible. And often kills the browser. The smoke from dung fires is thick especially in the morning and the evening and most came home with respiratory problems including me. I started my prescription yesterday.. should have taken it while on the trip but forgot one that I had was just for the congestion. I feel better already.

So it was amazing! The food was fantastic. i didn't take risks and enjoyed every bite. I drank gallons of water from my personal filter and also bought bottles. I tried to just use my filter but I needed to glug ever now and then, the filter just gives a thin stream. It was HOT for the last four days which was a treat. Can't imagine what it will be in a month. Locals were still wearing thick coats and we wanted to be in bathing suits!

We had tons of experiences including:

shawl shopping where the shawls are one by one unfolded, shaken out and floated across the room to land in a pile that ended up three feet deep in one shop we all went to together. hence late at night you see people sitting in shops folding.

almost the same experience punjabi suit shopping (the tunic, pants and shawl sets that women not wearing saris wear)

fabric shopping in almost the same way. I had three silk reversible shirt/jackets made up from one that MB brought with her as a model. They are loose and light and look good with jeans or dresses. they don't usually wear or make such but they did it and did it well. All in all 25 were ordered by the group! I also had a dress and skirt made up from a cotton punjabi set and bought a ready made punjabi set to wear to dressy occasions, it is black and beaded. And they made me a silk blouse from a scrap in the remnant pile. I bought some silk to match a jacket and I will make either a dress or skirt. They can copy whatever but they only know certain styles so I didn't want to chance it. The wrap skirt they made from cotton for me is just straight panels no shape so I will have to count it as just fabric and re-work it myself. All the stuff we buy here form India is made for tourists in factories that have been taught how to make it.

the Taj mahal....seemed almost fake. We have all seen the photos...to stand next to it is to stand next to a huge white wall,there is no way to see it is the Taj unless you are far away.  There is an industry caused pollution free zone around the Taj which means the city of Agra is known for its handwork. This is a good thing.

The Golden Temple in Amritsar is the mecca for Sikhs. The gold on i was worth 6.5 million over one hundred years ago. They (and all sikh temples) feed all that want to eat. The Golden Temple feeds 40,000 people a day (not meals...some people eat three plus times a day!) for free open to all - therefore there is no starvation in any place that had a sikh temple. We toured it all including all the nooks and crannies if the food areas. Dozens of people sitting and peeling garlic and onions. Pots the size of volkswagons full of lentils and rice, chapatis made by the thousand by hand with an assembly line of dough makers, rollers, flippers and the women that flung them like frisbees onto the stainless steel flat griddle top. the food smelled so good, I am not sure why we didn't eat ...it would have been good for us to volunteer a bit and dine. Most people just eat and continue with their life, others are tourists passing through and others spend their lives being taken care of by the temple in exchange for their work.  

Meals were huge! Veggies, lentils, rice, chapatis, sauces, tea was one meal we saw and breakfast was these little steamed rice puffs which I have to find out how to make and other traditional foods that we had at every breakfast. It was really good to see the food and the hundreds at a time eating happily chatting away.

The conference was good - the best parts were the morning and afternoon practical workshops. The big names spoke in generalities and MB and I started playing hooky so we could shop at the bazaar, we were not very good at bartering...most shops we went to were fixed rate but the prices are great. A good place to buy books and we did. Of course we learned after that the prices are really really good and a discount given too if we bought just a bit more but we didn't want to carry them. Then we discovered that book rate from India is about $2.50 for about 20 books! We can mail order from a few shops we spent time in. There were always boxes and boxes being wrapped and addressed.

The Beatles spent time in Rishikesh with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi...we went to the ashram which is now a ruin in India federal park land. A guy at the door negotiates a price to go in and poke around. The Beatles financed the building of the place and it is huge, lots of parts and most in fix 'er up condition. It would make a great tourist ashram. MB and I plotted it all out - a project for Kenny and Larry!

Monkeys monkeys monkeys. All very polite. They don't expect anything from people so they don't bother trying to do anything but be monkeys.

We saw ellyphants a few times and some lucky ones were able to ride the one they came across one morning. I will keep the memory of standing next to one all dressed for a wedding rocession. I talked to him and patted the trunk. It was dark and when we set off to go back to the car that was taking us to dinner we heard a shout and turned back. The elephant was coming with us! We stood still and the mahout got him turned around. that's it for today!

xoxo ruth

INDIA part 2

None of the scary warnings we were told before traveling came true. I am sure that India has it share of thieves, scam artists, etc. but we didn’t see any. After I realized it was not any more dangerous in the bazaars and streets than walking down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan or downtown Cardigan I relaxed A LOT. This meant I stopped using the money belt inside my pants or skirt. Anyone who thinks those money belts are hidden is fooling themselves -I received lots of belly stares as did all of us. I tied my wallet around my waist and no one stared at it. I couldn’t see the wallets of the locals, women have them inside their saris or perhaps their shawls cover them. When I wore a shawl I felt wrapped in protection and wasn’t stared at as much. My hair or lack of it makes me stand out there…. women have hair unless they are a Buddhist monk.

The hotels suggested we leave our passports at the desk and we did that, one less thing to think about. We were told by the hotel in Agra that passport thieving was big at the Taj Mahal. Skeptic that I am I wondered if passport photocopying was big business at the hotels…but I have no grounds for that thought!

I was never jostled in a crowd…actually we parted crowds like the Red Sea was parted. I believe we have auras that are visible to some people and if anyone can read an aura it is an Indian in India. Mary Beth and I were treated royally and with friendship wherever we went. Perhaps it is because we spoke the language (Namaste! Namaskar!) and talked to people about life, spiritual thought, food and everyday things.

People experiences were the highlight of the trip and they included:

- The Bindhi hawkers outside of the ashram we stayed in in Rishikesh. Bindhis are the dots or designs on the forehead that you may see…hawkers have realized that tourists love them and the first one is free! The kits to do them yourself are pennies if you barter and about a dollar if you don’t. I wasn’t interested but every day the guys by the ashram entrance tried. All white people look alike don’t we? I didn’t mind they tried everyday as they see hundreds pass by and there are always new people as it is a major tourist area. The hawkers’ lines include “okay maybe later – you come back later!” “Okay maybe tomorrow – you come back tomorrow?” “Okay! you came back – now buy?” “Ahhhh you said you would be back and you are”. I thought the last two were just lines until I realized they meant it…we were back. They knew we were back. They knew which stores we went into and what we bought – they kept track of what group we were in and who were our buddies – “hey why don’t you buy? I sold to your friends…” and sure enough they did.

So of course on the last day I bought a set but not from “my” guy but a guy way down the bazaar. Hours later returning to the Ashram, “my” guy said “hey! why did you buy from him and not me?” Indian telegraph!

- Perhaps the most memorable experience – one I will hold in my heart for a long time and who knows it may return in new ways, happened the day the group went to Ram Bagh in Amritsar. We had been to a sunrise ceremony and dip at the Golden Temple (more on that another time perhaps) and MB and I had had enough of being herded – we wanted to walk and poke at our own pace. We had a small map from the Lonely Planet Guide (EXCELLENT guide series) and knew where we were and somewhat where we wanted to go – first destination was the post office and then perhaps a place to buy shirts (we later learned that our Indian shirts are an item made for tourists and not available in non-tourist shop areas). We accepted a lift with the tour bus to the Ram Bagh museum and headed off down the garden path, which our map assured us went from one main road to another. It didn’t. So we took a ninety degree turn in the path and headed out in a new direction. There were some guys hanging out at the little entrance (just like any entrance anywhere in North America) and asked them for directions for the post office. We knew the road it was on but not how far down or in which direction it was. That not knowing before we set out was to be our experience we had decided.

The first guy shook his head and said he couldn’t read and then all the guys clustered around looking at the map…could it be they had never seen one? They didn’t seem at all interested in us. Then the group shuffled and a taller man with a red turban took the map. He looked at it and I said “Namaskar”  (salutations!) he instantly pressed his hands together and said it back, looked up and locked eyes with me. What clear and intent eyes too! And then he said “how may I help you?” So the short story is we hopped on the back of his Honda (the three of us, and no helmets) and he drove us to the post office. We were hoping the tour bus would pass us but it didn’t. At the PO we bought stamps and had a few more experiences with people and cameras etc. and then our guy was back, with a carefully planned sentence. He wanted us to meet his wife… a teacher at a local school. So we climbed back on the motorcycle and went to the school. While on the bike we had to keep our right legs tucked in as there wasn’t a foot rest and the other vehicles, walls, and assorted other road users would be right there. Traffic moves about 30 km an hour with lots of horn blaring saying “here I am” “it’s okay” rather than “get the #%^(%?! out of the way!”

We met the wife and also the school principal and lots of smiling students. The wife and principal were wondering about these two babes on the bike but all was explained. It is definitely NOT PROPER for a Sikh to drive around with two women sitting astride a motorcycle and holding on… there was lots of explaining happening! The principal didn’t let us get back on the bike, she sent us out the back door with two 15 year old boys who walked us the 20 minutes or so back to our hotel!

and that is enough for today!

INDIA part 3

God is everywhere and the people of India lead their lives with this knowledge perhaps more so than anywhere else on earth. They give God many names and faces, shapes and stories - everything is a manifestation of God. Krishna playing his flute with his white sacred cow is an image in paintings, on postcards, as sculptures (this life-size one is in the garden of the ashram we stayed in in Rishikesh).

These snippets relate to the photo gallery:
Two beautiful guys were placing broken glass pieces in fresh cement on top of a wall enclosing a private home. I am not sure what or who the glass is supposed to affect as we saw monkeys sitting on such walls without any discomfort. Also the gates in the walls were usually wide open. Maybe it is for the light refraction which did cause sparkles in the sun.

Monkeys are everywhere too and although we were woken up by monkey business in the middle of one night for the most part they were well behaved. This one shared Mary Beth's orange, meticulously taking off white pith that she had left on after peeling it (for herself). He also took the seeds out and laid them on the ground gently. After finishing he took MB's guidance and exited stage right. Most monkeys  
ignored us completely altho the one that was trained to beg and be a pest when we were in our bus called out to us to rescue him. He was dressed and did tricks but also looked hungry and unhappy.

One of the "caves" and little house (downstairs) built into the hill overlooking the river Ganga at the ashram where the Beatles lived. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi passed recently and while we were poking  
around the ruins outside of Rishikesh we met a woman that lived there for two years 40 years ago and had not been back since. The place was HUGE!  There were dozens of these little caves that were in great shape.

This fantasy building was at the top of a long out door stairs that climbed a hill behind the ashram.  It is painted in the ashram colours but I couldn't really find out what it was...the guru lived humbly right in our midst somewhere.  From different places I could see just the roof but I did find this glimpse...it is high  up in the jungle where tigers run free in the evening.

INDIA part 4

On the road: there are as many vehicle types on the roads in India as there are in the world...you name it it is on the road - whether the road is paved, dirt or cobble; one lane or two or really no lane; in the country or in the cities. The elephants we saw were on the roads in Amritsar. The camels were on the highway between Delhi and Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal, a very busy road